Commentary on comics, games, books, and their occasional intersection with politics and other serious business.

Thursday, October 20, 2016

17 to 01: The Playlist

In retrospect, a forty-minute YouTube playlist of Star Trek references seems a bit self-indulgent.On the other hand...tough Beeps.Special thanks to Skiltao for acquainting me with "Banned from Argo."For sites that don't let ads insert malware into your system, ad blockers are generally bad. I give you permission to use one on YouTube just this time. Link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3uoEQNM6rlPHgOSnNSCmmTwX0PtnLr-V

I guess I should say I do see Derek's point wrt to the song. If "Banned from Argo" were an actual episode, you guys would be discussing a social justice theme about, say, imperialism and groups of people being above the law.

Related: it would be amazing to have a nuTrek film open with this particular bout of shore leave.

We would tear it apart if it was an episode, but less so here. The fact that it's just a joke has never been a mitigating factor for these kinds of things. Nor has canonicity; a homophobic joke about Sulu is shitty even if it's merely said by an individual at the next table.

"Argo" is problematic, but it's within the context of a knowing parody. Chekov drinking so much he parks a shuttle on city hall and Chapel slipping Spock a roofie are true to their characters but ridiculous exaggerations. Sulu creating seductive plants is true to the character's botany history, but the sexual element (consensual though it is) is just as jarring as any of creepiest moments in TOS. But then almost every verse is sexual in nature. Does "Argo" deserve any more scorn than a thoughtful porn parody that's true to Trek? I dunno.

At any rate, if Argo is going to send police after Kirk for having consensual sex, maybe they're all jerks anyway.